Singapore Wins First Place for Windows Phone Challenge with "Speak Reminder" App

Microsoft has announced the winners of the 11th annual Microsoft Imagine Cup, the world’s premier competition for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs to create innovative projects and ultimately bring those ideas to market.

Winning projects were announced for the three major Competition categories - Innovation, Games and World Citizenship - as well as three product-specific challenges and eight special awards from Imagine Cup sponsors.

Team vSoft Studio from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore won the Imagine Cup 2013 Windows Phone Challenge with their app, Speak Reminder. Although seemingly a simple app, Speak Reminder features a thoughtful design that helps users create reminders on their Windows Phone through the Speech Recognition API, and features unique Live Tile and Lock Screen integration. For its startling functionality and device-focused utility combined with a delightful Windows Phone user experience, the three members walked away with the grand prize of US$10,000 at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals. As winners of the Windows Phone Challenge, the team were also awarded the DevExpress Boost that includes a comprehensive and feature-complete software development toolset for .NET developers valued at US$8,799.96.

To try out the Speak Reminder Windows Phone app, you can download it from the Windows Store over here.

The winners were announced at the Imagine Cup Awards Ceremony, held at the historic Alexandrinsky Theater and attended by more than 800 students, judges, awards Partners, Russian dignitaries and members of the media from around the world. The ceremony was the culmination of a four-day competition and celebration of bringing ideas to life through technology and teamwork.

Eighty-seven student teams from 71 countries competed in the Worldwide Finals after winning local and online competitions around the world. Microsoft has awarded cash and other prizes valued at more than US$1 million throughout the yearlong Imagine Cup competition, including awards for the winning teams at the Worldwide Finals event this week.

Imagine Cup Challenge winners

This year, Imagine Cup offered three exclusively online Challenges to students, providing additional opportunities for learning, prototyping and creating apps using the newest Microsoft technologies. The top three teams in each category were awarded the opportunity to travel to Russia to compete at the finals. The Challenge winners are the following (prizes are in US$):